Here at thirteen05 creative we take pride in our work. Unfortunately, not everyone does.

My assistant regularly contacts former prospects to see if they need anything. The other day someone told her they had chosen another company over ours (they were probably much cheaper than us). That company had taken their money and delivered nothing.

They were very upset and stated they don’t trust anyone in our industry. Meaning website developers and internet marketers. That is unfortunately the commonest of stories.

Any business owner knows there are unscrupulous and dishonest vendors out there. Every business owner has ways of evaluating potential vendors and trying to avoid getting taken.

I think the difference in our field (website design and internet marketing) is the degree of dishonesty and incompetence. It is FAR greater than anyone would expect. There is no association, no standards, no policing body to rein in sharp operators. Anyone can start promoting themselves as expert website developers (despite no experience). Smaller vendors aren’t worth suing. Online reviews only go so far.

We are bothered that the reputation of our industry should deservedly be somewhere down around that of used car lots and politicians.

Right here and now I want to challenge others in our industry. If you are honest and professional, you should be able to subscribe to this code of ethics (we do):

1. We promise never to make false claims or promises in our advertising or sales process.
2. We promise never to accept a contract or payment for a project we are not capable of doing.
3. We promise to do a professional job and to deliver what we agreed to.
4. We promise to adhere to the project timeline as closely as possible.
5. We promise to stay in good communication with our clients, to promptly return phone calls and emails.
6. We promise to maintain the confidentiality of your business information and never to sell or give away your contact information to other businesses.
7. We promise to always answer your questions honestly.
8. We promise to behave professionally in our relationship with our clients.

I’m sure this could be improved upon, but it is a start. I challenge every other company in our industry to subscribe to this code and to live up to it. I want our industry to have a well-deserved great reputation.

Richard R. Byrd, CEO

Thirteen05 creative